DESCRIPTION

McBain is a framework for building powerful APIs and applications. Writing an API with McBain provides the following benefits:

Lightweight-ness

McBain is extremely lightweight, with minimal dependencies on non-core modules; only two packages; and a succinct, minimal syntax that is easy to remember. Your APIs and applications will require less resources and perform better. Maybe.

Portability

McBain APIs can be run/used in a variety of ways with absolutely no changes of code. For example, they can be used directly from Perl code (see McBain::Directly), as fully fledged RESTful PSGI web services (see McBain::WithPSGI), as Gearman workers (see McBain::WithGearmanXS), or as ZeroMQ workers (see McBain::WithZeroMQ). Seriously, no change of code required. More McBain runners are yet to come (plus search CPAN to see if more are available), and you can easily create your own, god knows I don't have the time or motivation or talent. Why should I do it for you anyway?

Auto-Validation

No more tedious input tests. McBain will handle input validation for you. All you need to do is define the parameters you expect to get with the simple and easy to remember syntax provided by Brannigan. When your API is used, McBain will automatically validate input. If validation fails, McBain will return appropriate errors and tell the users of your API that they suck.

Self-Documentation

McBain also eases the burden of having to document your APIs, so that other people can actually use it (and you, two weeks later when you're drunk and can't remember why you wrote the thing in the first place). Using simple descriptions you give to your API's methods, and the parameter definitions, McBain can automatically create a manual document describing your API (see the mcbain2pod command line utility).

Modularity and Flexibility

APIs written with McBain are modular and flexible. You can make them object oriented if you want, or not, McBain won't care, it's unobtrusive like that. APIs are hierarchical, and every module in the API can be used as a complete API all by itself, detached from its siblings, so you can actually load only the parts of the API you need. Why is this useful? I don't know, maybe it isn't, what do I care? It happened by accident anyway.

No More World Hunger

It'll do that too, just give it a chance.

FUNCTIONS

The following functions are exported:

provide( $method, $route, %opts )

Define a method and a route. $method is one of GET, POST, PUT or DELETE. $route is a string that starts with a forward slash, like a path in a URI. %opts can hold the following keys (only cb is required):

An anonymous subroutine (or a subroutine reference) to run when the route is called. The method will receive the root topic class (or object, if the topics are written in object oriented style), and a hash-ref of parameters.

get( $route, %opts )

Shortcut for provide( 'GET', $route, %opts )

post( $route, %opts )

Shortcut for provide( 'POST', $route, %opts )

put( $route, %opts )

Shortcut for provide( 'PUT', $route, %opts )

del( $route, %opts )

Shortcut for provide( 'DELETE', $route, %opts )

pre_route( $cb->( $self, $meth_and_route, \%params ) )

post_route( $cb->( $self, $meth_and_route, \$ret ) )

Define a post_route method to run before/after every request to a route in the defining topic. See "PRE-ROUTES AND POST-ROUTES" for details.

METHODS

The following methods will be available on importing classes/objects:

call( @args )

Calls the API, requesting the execution of a certain route. This is the main way your API is used. The arguments it expects to receive and its behavior are dependent on the McBain runner used. Refer to the docs of the runner you wish to use for more information.

forward( $namespace, [ \%params ] )

For usage from within API methods; this simply calls a method of the the API with the provided parameters (if any) and returns the result. With forward(), an API method can call other API methods or even itself (for recursive operations).

$namespace is the method and route to execute, in the format <METHOD>:<ROUTE>, where METHOD is one of GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and ROUTE starts with a forward slash.

is_root( )

Returns a true value if the module is the root topic of the API. Mostly used internally and in McBain runner modules.

MANUAL

ANATOMY OF AN API

Writing an API with McBain is easy. The syntax is short and easy to remember, and the feature list is just what it needs to be - short and sweet.

The main idea of a McBain API is this: a client requests the execution of a method provided by the API, sending a hash of parameters. The API then executes the method with the client's parameters, and produces a response. Every runner module will enforce a different response format (and even request format). When the API is used directly, for example, whatever the API produces is returned as is. The PSGI and Gearman::XS runners, however, are both JSON-in JSON-out interfaces.

A McBain API is built of one or more topics, in a hierarchical structure. A topic is a class that provides methods that are categorically similar. For example, an API might have a topic called "math" that provides math-related methods such as add, multiply, divide, etc.

Since topics are hierarchical, every API will have a root topic, which may have zero or more child topics. The root topic is where your API begins, and it's your decision how to utilize it. If your API is short and simple, with methods that cannot be categorized into different topics, then the entire API can live within the root topic itself, with no child topics at all. If, however, you're building a larger API, then the root topic might be empty, or it can provide general-purpose methods that do not particularly fit in a specific topic, for example maybe a status method that returns the status of the service, or an authentication method.

The name of a topic is calculated from the name of the package itself. The root topic is always called / (forward slash), and its child topics are named like their package names, in lowercase, relative to the root topic, with / as a separator instead of Perl's ::, and starting with a slash. For example, lets look at the following API packages:

You will notice that the naming of the topics is similar to paths in HTTP URIs. This is by design, since I wrote McBain mostly for writing web applications (with the PSGI runner), and the RESTful architecture fits well with APIs whether they are HTTP-based or not.

CREATING TOPICS

To create a topic package, all you need to do is:

use McBain;

This will import McBain functions into the package, register the package as a topic (possibly the root topic), and attempt to load all child topics, if there are any. For convenience, McBain will also import strict and warnings for you.

Notice that using McBain doesn't make your package an OO class. If you want your API to be object oriented, you are free to form your classes however you want, for example with Moo or Moose:

CREATING ROUTES AND METHODS

The resemblance with HTTP continues as we delve further into methods themselves. An API topic defines routes, and one or more methods that can be executed on every route. Just like HTTP, these methods are GET, POST, PUT and DELETE.

Route names are like topic names. They begin with a slash, and every topic can have a root route which is just called /. Every method defined on a route will have a complete name (or path, if you will), in the format <METHOD_NAME>:<TOPIC_NAME><ROUTE_NAME>. For example, let's say we have a topic called /math, and this topic has a route called /divide, with one GET method defined on this route. The complete name (or path) of this method will be GET:/math/divide.

By using this structure and semantics, it is easy to create CRUD interfaces. Lets say your API has a topic called /articles, that deals with articles in your blog. Every article has an integer ID. The /articles topic can have the following routes and methods:

Of the three keys above (description, params and cb), only cb is required. It takes the actual subroutine to execute when the method is called. The subroutine will get two arguments: first, the root topic (either its package name, or its object, if you're creating an object oriented API), and a hash-ref of parameters provided to the method (if any).

You can provide McBain with a short description of the method, so that McBain can use it when documenting the API with mcbain2pod.

You can also tell McBain which parameters your method takes. The params key will take a hash-ref of parameters, in the format defined by Brannigan (see Brannigan::Validations for a complete references). These will be both enforced and documented.

As you may have noticed in the /articles example, routes can be defined using regular expressions. This is useful for creating proper RESTful URLs:

If the regular expression contains captures, and a call to the API matches the regular expressions, the values captured will be passed to the method, after the parameters hash-ref (even if the method does not define parameters, in which case the parameters hash-ref will be empty - this may change in the future).

It is worth understanding how McBain builds the regular expression. In the above example, the topic is /articles, and the route is /(\d+). Internally, the generated regular expression will be ^/articles/(\d+)$. Notice how the topic and route are concatenated, and how the ^ and $ metacharacters are added to the beginning and end of the regex, respectively. This means it is impossible to create partial regexes, which only pose problems in my experience.

OPTIONS REQUESTS

Every route defined by the API also automatically gets an OPTIONS method, again just like HTTP. This method returns a list of HTTP-style methods allowed on the route. The return format depends on the runner module used. The direct runner will return a hash-ref with keys being the HTTP methods, and values being hash-refs holding the description and params definitions (if any).

In the above example, notice how the GET:/factorial method calls both GET:/multiply and itself.

EXCEPTIONS

McBain APIs handle errors in a graceful way, returning proper error responses to callers. As always, the way errors are returned depends on the runner module used. When used directly from Perl code, McBain will confess (i.e. die) with a hash-ref consisting of two keys:

code - An HTTP status code indicating the type of the error (for example 404 if the route doesn't exist, 405 if the route exists but the method is not allowed, 400 if parameters failed validation, etc.).

error - The text/description of the error.

Depending on the type of the error, more keys might be added to the exception. For example, the parameters failed validation error will also include a rejects key holding Brannigan's standard rejects hash, describing which parameters failed validation.

When writing APIs, you are encouraged to return exceptions in this format to ensure proper handling by McBain. If McBain encounters an exception that does not conform to this format, it will generate an exception with code 500 (indicating "Internal Server Error"), and the error key will hold the exception as is.

PRE-ROUTES AND POST-ROUTES

New in v1.3.0

Every topic in your API can define pre and post routes. The pre route is called right before a route is executed, while the post route is called immediately after.

You should note that the pre and post routes are called on every route execution (when applicable), even when forwarding from one route to another.

Pre and post routes are hierarchical. When a route is executed, McBain will analyze the entire chain of topics leading up to that route, and execute all pre and post routes on the way (if any, of course). So, for example, if the route /math/factorial is to be executed, McBain will look for pre and post routes and the root topic (/), the /math topic, and the /math/factorial topic (if it exists). Whichever ones it finds will be executed, in order.

The pre_route subroutine gets as parameters the API package (or object, if writing object-oriented APIs, or the context object, if writing in contextual mode), the full route name (the method and the path, e.g. POST:/math/factorial), and the parameters hash-ref, after validation has occurred.

The post_route subroutine gets the same parameters, except the parameters hash-ref, in which place a reference to the result returned by the actual route is passed. So, for example, if the POST:/math/factorial method returned 13, then post_route will get a reference to a scalar variable whose value is 13.

CONTEXTUAL MODE

Note: contextual mode is an experimental feature introduced in v1.2.0 and may change in the future.

Contextual mode is an optional way of writing McBain APIs, reminiscent of web application frameworks such as Catalyst and Leyland. The main idea is that a context object is created for every request, and follows it during its entire life.

In regular mode, the API methods receive the class of the root package (or its object, if writing object oriented APIs), and a hash-ref of parameters. This is okay for simple APIs, but many APIs need more, like information about the user who sent the request.

Writing APIs in contextual mode is basically the same as in regular mode, only you need to build a context class. Since McBain doesn't intrude on your OO system of choice, constructing the class is your responsibility, and you can use whatever you want (like Moo, Moose, Class::Accessor). McBain only requires your context class to implement a subroutine named create_from_env( $runner, \%env, @args_to_call ). This method will receive the name of the runner module used, the standard environment hash-ref of McBain (which includes the keys METHOD, ROUTE and PAYLOAD), plus all of the arguments that were sent to the "call( @args )" method. These are useful for certain runner modules, such as the PSGI runner, which gets the PSGI hash-ref, from which you can extract session data, user information, HTTP headers, etc. Note that this means that if you plan to use your API with different runner modules, your create_from_env() method should be able to parse differently formatted arguments.

Note that currently, the context class has to be named __ROOT__::Context, where __ROOT__ is the name of your API's root package. So, for example, if your API's root package is named MyAPI, then McBain will expect MyAPI::Context.

Note: since v2.1.0, if McBain doesn't find a package named __ROOT__::Context, it will go up the package hierarchy until it finds one. For example, if the root package of your API is Some::API, then McBain will try Some::API::Context, then Some::Context, then finally Context. This was added to allow the sharing of the same context class in a project comprised of several APIs.

When writing in contextual mode, your API methods will receive the context object instead of the root package/object, and the parameters hash-ref.

Let's look at a simple example for writing APIs in contextual mode. Say our API is called MyAPI. Let's begin with the context class, MyAPI::Context:

package MyAPI;
use McBain -contextual;
get '/' => (
cb => sub {
my ($c, $params) = @_;
if ($c->user_agent =~ m/Android/) {
# do it this way
} else {
# do it that way
}
# you can still forward to other methods
$c->forward('GET:/something_else', \%other_params);
}
);
1;

So as you can see, the only real change for API packages is the need to write use McBain -contextual instead of use McBain. The only "challenge" is writing the context class.

MCBAIN RUNNERS

NOTE: since v2.0.0 the way runner modules are used has changed. The MCBAIN_WITH environment variable is no longer used. Read on for more information.

A runner module is in charge of loading McBain APIs in a specific way. The default runner, McBain::Directly, is the simplest runner there is, and is meant for using APIs directly from Perl code.

The runner module is in charge of whatever heavy lifting is required in order to turn your API into a "service", or an "app", or whatever it is you think your API needs to be.

The latter four completely change the way your API is used, and yet you can see their code is very short.

To tell McBain which runner module to use, you must provide the name of the runner when loading your API:

use MyAPI -withPSGI; # can also write -WithPSGI

In the above example, McBain::WithPSGI will be the runner module used.

The default runner module is McBain::Directly. If you use an API with no parameter, it will be the loaded runner module:

use MyAPI;
use MyAPI -directly; # the same as above

You can easily create your own runner modules, so that your APIs can be used in different ways. A runner module needs to implement the following interface:

init( $runner_class, $target_class )

This method is called when McBain is first imported into an API topic. $target_class will hold the name of the class currently being imported to.

You can do whatever initializations you need to do here, possibly manipulating the target class directly. You will probably only want to do this on the root topic, which is why "is_root( )" is available on $target_class.

You can look at WithPSGI and WithGearmanXS to see how they're using the init() method. For example, in WithPSGI, Plack::Component is added to the @ISA array of the root topic, so that it turns into a Plack app. In WithGearmanXS, the init() method is used to define a work() method on the root topic, so that your API can run as any standard Gearman worker.

generate_env( $runner_class, @call_args )

This method receives whatever arguments were passed to the "call( @args )" method. It is in charge of returning a standard hash-ref that McBain can use in order to determine which route the caller wants to execute, and with what parameters. Remember that the way call() is invoked depends on the runner used.

The hash-ref returned must have the following key-value pairs:

ROUTE - The route to execute (string).

METHOD - The method to call on the route (string).

PAYLOAD - A hash-ref of parameters to provide for the method. If no parameters are provided, an empty hash-ref should be given.

generate_res( $runner_class, \%env, $result )

This method formats the result from a route before returning it to the caller. It receives the $env hash-ref (if needed), and the result from the route. In the WithPSGI runner, for example, this method encodes the result into JSON and returns a proper PSGI response array-ref.

handle_exception( $runner_class, $error, @args )

This method will be called whenever a route raises an exception, or otherwise your code fails. The $error variable will always be a standard exception hash-ref, with code and error keys, and possibly more. Read the discussion above.

The method should format the error before returning it to the user, similar to what generate_res() above performs, but it allows you to handle exceptions gracefully.

Whatever arguments were provided to call() will be provided to this method as-is, so that you can inspect or use them if need be. WithGearmanXS, for example, will get the Gearman::XS::Job object and call the send_fail() method on it, to properly indicate the job failed.

AUTHOR

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either version 5.8.1 or any later version. See perlartistic and perlgpl.

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.